Now that Donald Trump can no longer ride the coattails of Barack Obama’s presidency, taking credit for the upswing on employment numbers left by a president who presided over the longest sustained period of job growth in history, Trump will have to rely on his own policies to create jobs.
Speaking of presidential histories of job growth, Trump might want to note which have seen upswings and which have seen losses, because it hasn’t been all losses before Trump. Other presidents have great records of job growth, but those presidents all have a “D” after their names.
‘With that in mind, Bill Clinton created the most number of jobs (23.2 million) during his term. Barack Obama is second, creating 17.2 million jobs from the beginning to the end of his term. But Obama created 22.3 million jobs from the worst part of the Great Recession (January 2010) through the end of his term…
‘A president’s record at job creation depends somewhat on the business cycle. For example, those who inherited a recession, like Clinton, Obama, Reagan, Carter and LBJ, did better at job creation. They started with a low base, and so had nowhere to go but up. Those that created recessions, like both Bushes, Nixon, and Eisenhower, did the worst.’
It’s also interesting that Trump is complaining about trade deficits in the past year, and he might want to note who was in charge of “policies and leadership” in 2017.
To appease his southern voters, Trump will continue to insist that he’s “bringing back” the jobs they have relied on for years so that they can prosper again. However, just like no one will suddenly start being hired again as switchboard operators or Pullman car porters, coal is not going to make a comeback, and manufacturing jobs have changed with the times. Investments in education for green energy jobs and computer technology should be a particular focus, but Trump is determined to “make America great again” like it was in the 1950s, and so it is 1950s jobs that he will point to, stalling growth and the push toward advancement.
Twitter had it’s own thoughts on Trump’s tweets. See some of their best responses below:
Featured image via Getty/Pool
